Superbueno sits on a First Avenue corner at the edge of the East Village, a Mexican American cocktail bar from Cocktail Kingdom Hospitality and bartender Ignacio 'Nacho' Jimenez. It landed at No. 2 on North America's 50 Best Bars in both 2024 and 2025, and the room earns the billing.
Who would love it: drinkers who want agave and ambition without a hushed speakeasy script, plus anyone chasing a list that reads playful but pours serious. Who would hate it: parties that show up at 10pm on a weekend expecting an easy seat, since the small corner room fills and stays full.
The space is bright and colorful by cocktail-bar standards, a deliberate counter to the dark-den template that dominates the neighbourhood. The bar takes its cues from Mexican home cooking and street food, and the drinks are built to read like dishes more than classics with a twist.
Order the Mushroom Margarita, the signature pour that runs mezcal, Cointreau, huitlacoche, lime and lava salt for something earthy and savory. The Green Mango Martini layers tequila, mango eau de vie, sauternes, green mango and honey, and the Vodka y Soda dresses up a highball with guava and pasilla. Cocktails sit in the mid-to-upper Manhattan range, so this is a destination round rather than a cheap one.
Superbueno is one of the most decorated of the city's best cocktail bars in New York, and its agave focus makes it a natural anchor for an East Village night. The corner location puts it minutes from the Second Avenue F stop.
Best time to go is early, right at the 4pm weekend open or a weekday before 7pm, when bar seats are reachable and the team has room to talk through the list. After 9pm the wait builds, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.
Build the rest of the evening from the cocktail bars guide or the full New York bar guide. The East Village packs more recommended rooms per block than anywhere in the city.
The room
The room rejects the speakeasy playbook on purpose. Color, pattern and light replace the usual dark wood and low ceilings, and the corner windows keep it feeling open rather than hidden. It is small, which is the catch, but the brightness makes a tight space feel social instead of cramped.
The bar takes its visual cues from Mexican home cooking and street culture, and the energy stays upbeat. 6sqft noted the bar's crowning as the best in the United States turned a small East Village corner into a destination, and the lines on weekend nights bear that out.
What regulars say
- The North America's 50 Best Bars listing, No. 2 in both 2024 and 2025, is the credential that draws the crowds.
- 6sqft and Yelp reviewers point to the Mushroom Margarita as the must-order, with the menu read as food-inspired rather than classic-driven.
- Regulars warn that the room is small and fills fast, so an early arrival is the difference between a seat and a wait.
Who it is for
- Drinkers who want agave-forward cocktails with a sense of humor.
- A lively East Village night that does not need a hushed room.
- Skip it late on a weekend unless you are happy to queue.
Getting a seat is the whole game here. The corner room is small, walk-in only, and the wait stretches past an hour on weekend nights once word-of-mouth and the 50 Best ranking pull a crowd. The fix is simple: arrive at the 4pm weekend open or before 7pm on a weekday, claim a bar stool, and let the team walk the list before the room turns over.
It sits high on our best cocktail bars in New York ranking.
